July 22, 2009

Teaching before the mission... well, I think that teaching the youth has helped a bit, but maybe not in the ways I would have thought at the beginning. I think it gave me time to make mistakes before I came here on the mission, so that I might be able to see them and learn from them before I got here on the mission. Something I don’t think I did so well was knowing the doctrine so well as to be able to go through without having to glance at the material etc.
An interesting thing about teaching here on the mission is that in teaching the same general subjects we run the risk of just habitually teaching the same things until we even get to the point of memorized (though not intentionally) ways of teaching. And in this way we become very much like a tape player, hit play and the machine spits out the info. and if we aren’t careful, we can get to the point where we stop giving attention to new questions, examples and ways of explaining from the Spirit that would allow Him to teach more effectively given in the moments. And so it is key to know what you will teach, but also to leave room for the spirit to teach, we don’t actually teach anything, we could spit out all the necessary information, but until the Spirit brings the info to the people's hearts, nothing comes out of it. I've seen this in my own life, as I found I knew a bit about the atonement of Jesus Christ, in my mind I had a comprehension of what happened (Generally speaking) and why it was necessary, but as I’ve studied it a bit more, striving to learn "by study and by faith", the Spirit has taken the truths I had in my mind into my heart, and then they started making more of a difference in my life. I think I didn’t let the Spirit do enough speaking in the class as I taught, far too often, I just gave out information. Also I think I didn’t trust in the Spirit to give the things to teach before the mission, I would worry about freezing up, losing control, or having long pauses as I tried to catch up in my mind where I was teaching etc. but it’s something I learned to stop worrying about, and worry more about the preparation and letting the Spirit guide as the action unfolds. So em fim, I think it gave me time to make mistakes from which I would be able to learn from, and still am for that matter.

Recently I’ve been blessed to recognize some answers to prayer in our work here in Porto Seguro. Ever since the Zone Conference we've had a focus on finding men and families to teach, with the idea of bringing in a "core" of families and potential priesthood leaders here in the center of town. This focus along with our prayers have begun to put out fruits, and this week looking at our investigators we have yet to find a whole family, but we have found some great potential Priesthood leaders. We met a man in the street the other day named Steven who is 40 years old, and looking for the truth, we also had a man the other day who came up and asked us to visit him and his family (have yet to visit him, our appointment is set for tomorrow) and another guy also called us to his shop to speak a bit with us on Monday as well, who we visited last night though he unfortunately seems to be a bit skeptical about the idea of a prophet in our days. Another woman of great faith is going to baptized here on Saturday and her positive influence has gotten her mom and sister and almost brother in law interested along with her nieces, and their support could also help another family in the area we are beginning to reactivate. The Lord truly does bless us when we pray with faith, and act in patient diligence.

I know that Christ lives and loves us, that God is our Heavenly Father, and that this is their church here on the earth. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amém.

Elder Jacob Pettit